Robin Swoboda joins Channel 3 News team

"I am happy to announce that Robin will be anchoring our 7 p.m. newscast, along with current reporter Chris Tye," said WKYC President and General Manager Brooke Spectorsky.

"I know Robin's experience, community knowledge and warm sense of humor will bring a unique perspective to our newscast. You've seen Chris substituting for anchors Mark Nolan and Romona Robinson over the past few years. He's got great energy and strong reporting skills. Together, Robin and Chris will be a dynamic team."

"When I started as an evening anchor in 1986, I never would have imagined the course my on-air life would take," added Robin.

"I've thoroughly enjoyed it all; from local shows to network programming to the Morning Exchange. But my first love has always been news, and I feel that's where my strongest contributions will be. I'm truly excited to join the news team at WKYC, and I look forward to re-imagining the 7 p.m. show with Chris, Betsy and Jim. I've got lots of ideas already...look out Cleveland!"

Currently hosted by reporters Monica Robins and Eric Mansfield, the WKYC 7 p.m. show was first in the market and concentrates on in-depth reporting and analysis.

"When we moved to a single anchor format with Romona at 6 and 11 p.m., we took two of our strongest beat reporters off the street and moved them into a different role at 7," explained News Director Rita Andolsen.

"The opportunity to hire Robin coincided with our realization that we needed to reinstate resources for our medical coverage and Akron/Canton content."

Swoboda will begin on-air in early March. In addition to past roles as a news anchor for WJW and WEWS, she has also co-hosted several national non-news programs including "InSport" with Ahmad Rashad, "Cover To Cover" with Gayle King and co-host of WEWS "Morning Exchange."

Most recently, she was the program host for "The Robin Swoboda Show," an advertiser friendly show on WJW.

In addition to its television operations, Gannett Co., Inc. is a leading international news and information company that publishes 100 daily newspapers in the USA, including USA TODAY, the nation's largest-selling daily newspaper. The company also owns in excess of 400 non-daily publications in the USA and USA WEEKEND, a weekly newspaper magazine. Gannett subsidiary Newsquest is the United Kingdom's second largest regional newspaper company. Newsquest publishes more than 300 titles, including 17 daily newspapers, and a network of prize-winning Web sites. Gannett is an Internet leader with sites sponsored by its TV stations and newspapers including USATODAY.com, one of the most popular news sites on the web.